"ELF: The Musical'' brings George Wendt back to his role as Santa Claus

Thursday

Nov 16, 2017 at 4:37 PMNov 20, 2017 at 4:13 PM

By R. Scott Reedy, Correspondent

Actor George Wendt is eager to slip back into the familiar red suit and put on the white beard to play Santa Claus, a role he originated on Broadway in 2010, in “ELF: The Musical,” which begins a two-week run at Boston’s Boch Wang Center on Nov. 28.

“Santa Claus is such a beloved character, so I’m delighted to have the opportunity to play him again. And "ELF" is based on the 2003 Jon Favreau film of the same name that’s a very clever, hip comedy, which makes this all the better,” said Wendt by telephone recently.

The story follows Buddy, a young orphan who unwittingly stows away in Santa’s gift bag and ends up back at the North Pole. While he is initially oblivious to the fact that he is not really an elf but actually human, his oversized stature and less-than-impressive toy-making talents eventually force Buddy to face the truth.

With Santa’s support, Buddy soon heads to New York City to search for his birth father and restore holiday spirit to a cynical city. In a change from the film, the musical is narrated by Santa Claus rather than Papa Elf, who does not appear.

“To Buddy, Santa is the ideal of what is most sacred about Christmas. Buddy may be looking for his father, but he really looks up to Santa,” explains Wendt.

“This musical version is very cool like the movie. That’s one of the reasons I signed on to do the Broadway production. Another was the opportunity it gave me to work with an amazing creative team.

“The songwriters Matthew Sklar and Chad Beguelin, and the writers Bob Martin and the late Thomas Meehan, whom we lost in August, have a done great job. And we also have a terrific director, Sam Scalamoni, and a very talented choreographer, Connor Gallagher.”

Best known as barstool-frequenting Norm Peterson on the classic NBC-TV sitcom “Cheers,” Wendt has done several Broadway shows. Indeed, “ELF” is not his first musical. In 2008, he played the role of Edna Turnblad in “Hairspray.”

His current assignment is giving the Chicago native another chance to show off his song-and-dance skills.

“In this show, I get my own song, ‘Nobody Cares about Santa,’ and I even get to dance a little, which is great fun.”

Wendt last appeared in Boston 11 years ago in a touring production of “12 Angry Men” at the Colonial Theatre. Earlier this fall, he starred as Willy Loman in Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” at St. Jacobs Country Playhouse in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

“I prefer comedy, frankly, because it is more in my wheelhouse, but you can’t turn down Willy Loman. He’s the white whale for geezer actors. It was really hard work, though, because I’m used to being the third or fourth banana,” says Wendt.

It was just that kind of role on the set-in-Boston “Cheers” that earned him six Emmy Award nominations for best supporting actor in a comedy series and a legion of fans whom he forgives for sometimes confusing him with his character.

“In the first or second season of the show, I realized that if I let people calling me ‘Norm’ bother me, I would be certifiable. I’m so much older now that my brother, who’s 14 years younger, gets it more often than I do,” says the 69-year-old with a laugh.

Mindful of the recently relaunched “Will & Grace” and the planned 2018 return of “Roseanne” to the small screen, Wendt knows that “Cheers,” which ended its 11-season run on NBC-TV in May 1993, could also be ripe for revival.

“No one has approached me about "Cheers" coming back so I’m not holding my breath, but I would be very happy to reprise Norm. We’ve lost Nicholas Colasanto (‘Coach’), but the rest of the main cast is still alive so it could be fun to work with them again.

“And I imagine a 70-ish Sam Malone (Ted Danson) would still be a pretty interesting character,” says Wendt.